4 ms·

Here's the first 12 videos they played. It's a mix of American and "foreign" (mostly UK) bands, but it's interesting to compare the different styles. The UK (an

Here's the first 12 videos they played. It's a mix of American and "foreign" (mostly UK) bands, but it's interesting to compare the different styles. The UK (and NZ) videos are slick, artistically produced music videos in the modern style we'd recognise today. But the US ones are mostly just simple recordings of the bands performing live. Did the US just not have the concept of music videos before MTV came along? The Buggles (UK) Pat Benatar (USA) Rod Stewart (UK) The Who (UK) Ph.D. (UK) The Pretenders (UK, but the singer was American) Todd Rundgren (USA) Styx (USA) Robin Lane & The Chartbusters (USA) Split Enz (New Zealand) 38 Special (USA) Rod Stewart (again!) (UK)

ss2003 5y ago
There were music videos on US TV before MTV. Night Flight was on Weekends around midnight.
- LevGoldstein 5y ago
  HBO also aired videos periodically between movies, prior to MTV's existence.
- tomhoward 5y ago
  Night Flight was on Weekends around midnight I guess the point is that Countdown in Australia and Top of the Pops in the UK were prime time and very mainstream. In Australia then there were only four TV channels (with no subscription TV), and Countdown on Saturday evening was the thing that most kids/teenagers watched, in many cases with their parents. And without even many music radio stations operating, it was a primary way people discovered new music, and it was a hugely influential program. A lot of artists we remember as the biggest bands of the late 70s and 80s – e.g., Blondie, ABBA, John Mellencamp, Meat Loaf, Boz Scaggs and Cyndi Lauper – had their first chart success anywhere in the world in Australia, thanks to being played on Countdown. Politicians would go on there when campaigning. Prince Charles even appeared in a famously bad interview.
  - pm215 5y ago
    Wasn't Top of The Pops all film of the bands in a studio live/miming-over-a-recording, though? I don't see how that would provide a head-start for producing music videos...
    - Reason077 5y ago
      Yes, but they also played music videos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops#Music_videos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops#Music_videos
    - darrenf 5y ago
      > Wasn't Top of The Pops all film of the bands in a studio live/miming-over-a-recording, though? Not at all. There were videos being shown at least as far back as 1979 (around when I can vaguely remember first seeing the show). From a cursory search, here's a Thin Lizzy video from June that year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnkHDtqpETE&t=905s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnkHDtqpETE&t=905s
    - tomhoward 5y ago
      I don't know! If it was, it strengthens my point. Others seemed to be trying to refute my original comments by saying that Top of the Pops had been running for years before Countdown, but if it was just showing mimed live performances rather than concept videos, then my original assertion that AU/NZ had a head start is solid after all. Edit: As a sibling commenter pointed out, a video Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was shown in 1975, and The Beatles had already made the Yellow Submarine movie, so yep, artists in the UK were certainly experimenting with the medium. But it seems both the UK and Australia were a bit ahead of music video being a big thing in the US.
etempleton 5y ago
I actually just looked this up as I was curious of what preceded MTV (I wondered if it was a chicken and egg problem. Did MTV have to convince bands to createmusic videos?). The answer seems to be that Australia had been innovators in this space and the US was just catching up to the music video concept, so there were probably less US bands with music videos ready for the launch of MTV.
- digisign 5y ago
  The Monkees did a music video or two in each episode, from the late 60s.
wyclif 5y ago
I remember it all quite clearly as a kid. It was the first time I heard "Brass In Pocket" by the Pretenders which is still such a great hit single and the best of that first two hours. It became the first song that I associated with the video right from the beginning.
ASalazarMX 5y ago
> the US ones are mostly just simple recordings of the bands performing live "The band has to do a concert, let's record the live album and the music video at the same time. Three birds with the same stone!" -- Producer, probably

ss2003 5y ago

There were music videos on US TV before MTV. Night Flight was on Weekends around midnight.

LevGoldstein 5y ago
HBO also aired videos periodically between movies, prior to MTV's existence.
tomhoward 5y ago
Night Flight was on Weekends around midnight I guess the point is that Countdown in Australia and Top of the Pops in the UK were prime time and very mainstream. In Australia then there were only four TV channels (with no subscription TV), and Countdown on Saturday evening was the thing that most kids/teenagers watched, in many cases with their parents. And without even many music radio stations operating, it was a primary way people discovered new music, and it was a hugely influential program. A lot of artists we remember as the biggest bands of the late 70s and 80s – e.g., Blondie, ABBA, John Mellencamp, Meat Loaf, Boz Scaggs and Cyndi Lauper – had their first chart success anywhere in the world in Australia, thanks to being played on Countdown. Politicians would go on there when campaigning. Prince Charles even appeared in a famously bad interview.
- pm215 5y ago
  Wasn't Top of The Pops all film of the bands in a studio live/miming-over-a-recording, though? I don't see how that would provide a head-start for producing music videos...
  - Reason077 5y ago
    Yes, but they also played music videos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops#Music_videos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops#Music_videos
  - darrenf 5y ago
    > Wasn't Top of The Pops all film of the bands in a studio live/miming-over-a-recording, though? Not at all. There were videos being shown at least as far back as 1979 (around when I can vaguely remember first seeing the show). From a cursory search, here's a Thin Lizzy video from June that year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnkHDtqpETE&t=905s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnkHDtqpETE&t=905s
  - tomhoward 5y ago
    I don't know! If it was, it strengthens my point. Others seemed to be trying to refute my original comments by saying that Top of the Pops had been running for years before Countdown, but if it was just showing mimed live performances rather than concept videos, then my original assertion that AU/NZ had a head start is solid after all. Edit: As a sibling commenter pointed out, a video Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was shown in 1975, and The Beatles had already made the Yellow Submarine movie, so yep, artists in the UK were certainly experimenting with the medium. But it seems both the UK and Australia were a bit ahead of music video being a big thing in the US.

etempleton 5y ago

I actually just looked this up as I was curious of what preceded MTV (I wondered if it was a chicken and egg problem. Did MTV have to convince bands to createmusic videos?). The answer seems to be that Australia had been innovators in this space and the US was just catching up to the music video concept, so there were probably less US bands with music videos ready for the launch of MTV.

digisign 5y ago
The Monkees did a music video or two in each episode, from the late 60s.

wyclif 5y ago

I remember it all quite clearly as a kid. It was the first time I heard "Brass In Pocket" by the Pretenders which is still such a great hit single and the best of that first two hours. It became the first song that I associated with the video right from the beginning.

ASalazarMX 5y ago

> the US ones are mostly just simple recordings of the bands performing live "The band has to do a concert, let's record the live album and the music video at the same time. Three birds with the same stone!" -- Producer, probably